Sure it's not the most original idea, but who cares?

Nick, i e-mailed you and IRC'ed you about Metriod 82!! Where is it?
Btw, for those who dont know me and Trip n' Save are making metriod 82 - check out Met82.cjb.net

Oh boy... Thats alot of news....

Thanks BlueCalx ever so much for getting the Wireless TI page SLASHDOTTED. Now I won't be able to check it out for a week =(

Hey, am I the only idiot still programming the TI-85? I've made good games like DBZ and good programs like the password protected PLANNER lately but nobody seems to care. I'd make stuff on another calculator but I don't have one. So here's a news story: dust off you TI-85 and play some classics!

Hah, well I am there for ya guy. Just point the way to the good stuff. It might end up being VTI for two reasons though. First, i don't have a graph link at this location and second, this 85 is a remnant of trying to glue on a new screen with super glue and it messing up but leaving some of the glue :) (thats not my fault)

-Corey

If the TI-85 was discontinued, would owning the ROM for VTI be legal if you didn't have one? I mean, TI has their little DOS 81 emulator...

I am a fellow owner of a TI-85, but I also own an 83, 86, & 89. I have found that the 85 is the most stable of the four. It is also the easiest to program BASIC on, and BASIC 85 programs work on the 86 also.

The 85 does have its shortcomings, including its relatively small amount of memory and limited assembly capabilities.

About C...

I had the idea of making a site in which we could put code bits and explained them, or people could just copy&paste code to their programs. I saw that with something called snippets (search for it on www.softseek.com) and it looks a fine idea for calculators. Anyone interested in making something out of it, please reply (maybe posting rather than mailing if it's smtg that might interest other ppl as well...)

---
Cd_Slayer

I'm making utilities that will be distributed with the TI-GCC IDE v3.0. I've been working on a header file for LCD buffering. The next thing I will do is scaled sprites. Of course, I could upload and explain it once it's done.

Gotta have scaled sprites... If I could do it, I'd make a 3-D shooter right now. Otherwize, it's gonna be just a screensaver for the 89, like the 3-D maze on Win98. Not too exciting. Oh, and I am gonna do it in C, so that C programming site might be useful.

Well, here's my idea: On the vertical axis, it's no problem obviously. Horizontally, you could use '%', '/', '<<', and '>>' to extract pieces and shift them when needed. Also, the whole sprite needs to be shifted depending on where you draw it.

A few more ideas...
Code bits could be a menu, for istance and there could also be an animated gif of it working. It's a great idea to copy&paste code for beta versions then fine tune it after being the idea being commented. But I need help with it...

---
Cd_Slayer

I already get internet at school on my calculator with Macrosses' Telnet 82. If only I could read the article... their server is down :(

Well, I actually sort of prefer this method of news. . .it's kind of cool to get onto ticalc.org and be able to see a whole slew of messages as opposed to the release of an 89 game which I can not play (although lots of people appreciate those too, I understand :). But it's great to see not so headline newsworthy items getting some mention, such as Psychocorp, which I wouldn't classify as a ground-breaking news-reel. But then again, it doesn't hurt to see it announced.

Dan Coleman

PsychoCorp is the first (to my knowledge) TI parody site. HOW CAN THAT NOT BE GROUNDBREAKING!?!?!?!

Excuse me while I go and dunk my head in a bucket of cold water...

Okay, so maybe Psychocorp was the (gasp) "First TI parody site"(!!!!). And maybe my recently programed game, Capitalism83, is the (another gasp) "First (english) stock market simulation game that's fun and addicting for the 83"(!!!!!!!!!!!!!). But I'm not sitting here e-mailing all the TI sites to post something about it because I want the publicity. I think that people would find your site well enough just because it's hosted by your site, one which many people visit. And yeah, your site is pretty funny, but just because it's funny and is the first of it's kind doesn't automatically mean that it is front page material (although, I don't know. . . you did somehow manage to get your nibbles game up there.)

Dan Coleman

Sometimes you crack me up Dan...
SiCoDe doesn't get nearly as many visitors as TiCalc.org, unless you wondered otherwise. And its not advertised extensively - SiCoDe and PsychoCorp are completely seperate (except for the fact that I am a member of both).
And your posts are designed to inflame people's opinions, especially mine, I know - its a good way to prove yourself right by making other people make a fool of themselves. But you haven't come up with a single good reason why PsychoCorp isn't front page material. Come on - I'm waiting...

Hmmm. It seems you /can't/ think of a good reason then. Never mind, I don't expect you to admit you were wrong... ;)

Well Nick, it just bashes you a lot because you are so popular (good thing!). I don't actually think any less of you because of something posted on a parody site :)

I was reading the post about TI-85's when I thought:
'There's so many cool ASM games for the 85... too bad
I can't play all of them on my 89!'

This got me thinking... woulnd't it be great if we could set up a universal ASM language for all calculators? That way you could download the source, and use a compiler to build it for the one(s) you have.
Of course, you wouldn't be able to make SMQ for an 82,
but you could make TI-CHESS for the 86... and have
the new megaman from the 86 to the 89...
This would also save a lot of time with porting and
such. It'd be a lot of trouble to set up, but in my opinion, it'd be worth it.

sounds like a good idea. . but many people have tried that. All have failed. It would be possible threw all z80 calcs. but z80 and 68k are 2 different things. . One day maybe. . until then. . suffer in having to buy that calc. but for gods sake. DONT BUY IT FOR THE GAMES. I can't stress that enough.

*IF* we do it, than not in ASM. Instead, we would have to use some kind of universal C. It would use different compilers and header files, but you would be able to compile the program for every calculator. The only problem is that everything would have to be standardized, that is, no TIOS functions can be called directly. This would make everything a lot bigger and slower, which you can't afford on Z80 calculators (I think).

Actually, the Z80 calculators AFAIK have very similar operating environments. The mnemonics may be completely different, but the TIOS functions are basically the same. It might be possible to create an ASM compiler that makes code for all of the Z80 calcs with linkports, as was done on a more limited scale with Ion. Granted, the 83 and 83+ are more similar than, say, the 82 and 86, but it may still be possible.

Please, don't all flame me at once.

The z80 calculors do not have enough memory to make C or another high-level language practical. The only real application would be for simple math programs. Any graphical program would have to be changed significantly due to different screen sizes. I'm writing a program (an RPG, see URL for information) in assembly that will have to be split into several parts in order to fit on the z80 calcs, so I don't think C would be that useful for these calculators.

Kerey Roper
http://members.xoom.com/k_roper/

Highlevel languages like C are made exactly for tasks like this. Its a matter of program design to make C programs portable. To make porting easy everything which is platform-depended should be encapsulated into a single source file. So if you want to port it to another platform you have just to port that platform-depended part. Sorrily TI-Chess wasn't designed for easy-porting. The major design goal was to finish it in the shortest possible time. But as for as I can see, the porting to the TI-83 Plus can be done in a few days if someone wants to do it. Maybe I do it by myself sometimes in the future, but I don't know if I'll "find" enough free time for the porting.
BTW: The upcoming version of the TIGCC standard library from Zeljko Juric will be a large step in the "programs become portable" direction. Stay tuned. The new version is somewhat special.

When is TIGCCLIB coming out? Do you know a date, or at least an estimate? With the new version and TIGCCIDE 3.0, we'll have a professional quality program developing environment for the 89 and 92+.

I hope that TIGCCLIB 2.0 will be released TODAY at late evening. As I am author of it, this information is reliable :-)